TIM Cone is not about to make any excuses after Gilas Pilipinas’ 89-85 loss to Bahrain in its opening game in the 20th Asian Games which saw top gunner Robert Bolick go scoreless while playing with a bum knee.
Cone said the unfortunate injury happened while the Filipinos were warming up for the contest against Bahrain on Friday noon at the Aichi International Arena.
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The injury obviously affected Bolick’s mobility and contributed to the NLEX guard going 0-of-5 from downtown in the game.
“Robert injured his knee during warm-ups when he landed badly which set us back. He tried to play through it, but it was a struggle,” said Cone.
It didn’t help any the Philippine team later lost slasher Adrian Nocum to an ankle sprain which he suffered at the final 1:51 mark and Gilas behind, 89-80.
Nocum, the Rain or Shine stalwart playing in his first tournament with the national squad, went on to finish with 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.
“Thank goodness for Calvin's (Oftana) play,” said Cone of the veteran TNT forward, who carried Gilas on his shoulders with a game-high 31 points on 6-of-9 shooting from three-point range despite being a last-minute entry as substitute for naturalized player Justin Brownlee.
But Cone said there’s no time to wallow over the Bahrain loss as Gilas is set to play Kazakhstan right away on Saturday night in a game of survival for the reigning gold medalist.
“No time to feel bad about it however. We need to move on quickly against Kazakhstan,” he said.
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